lifting up one small village by providing world class education

Teacher Peter leading kids in a singing break

GOAL OF ISHIMWE PIONEER

Rural communities tend to lag well behind their suburban counterparts. Here in Rwanda, the almost miraculous progress visible to all in Kigali has attracted numerous investors to build good quality institutions, including children's schools. Great news for city families. But there is no financial incentive to establish primary schools in the villages where rural incomes remain low.

So Ishimwe Pioneer has selected the small rural village of Mwendo in the district of Bugesera to found a world-class primary school. Families here appreciate this golden opportunity to advance their children through excellent education. We have more applicants than we can hope to admit, but we do the best we can.

All pervasive poverty means that even working parents struggle to pay our modest school fees. We end up looking for sponsorships to make up for the shortfall. Our goal here is to enable the next generation to reach their full potential, and if that causes us some financial headaches, then we will struggle through.

Although we are still operating in our interim building, the fourth yeargroup of primary school students are graduating in November 2019. In 2018, 100% of the Pioneer pupils passed their P6 national exams.